It’s a joke.
A bad joke.
I give Kieran a shove, shaking my head.
Niko and Ollie look up at him, unsure if he’s seriously accusing them of bribery.
“Don’t be a dick, dude,” I tell him.
“What?” Kieran asks. “Just asking, Noah. Did your parents toss some sugar toward some of these execs this year?”
“Can’t say they did,” Noah tells him.
Noah doesn’t look pissed. Honestly, he looks sad for a moment, in a way I never usually see on him.
“Sorry, Noah,” I say. “Kieran has a rod up his ass lately.”
Kieran takes a long swig and then laughs. “Bro, you’re the one getting your cock sucked at Onyx House, Sev.”
I freeze up for a moment, caught between two impulses.
I want to sock Kieran in the face. Badly.
But I equally want to act calm and collected while my goddamn cousin is looking at me with twin fucking high-beams all of a sudden.
As soon as he says it, he seems to realize his mistake. I expressly asked him not to mention what he saw between me and Weston, but… Kieran is a loose cannon, and he spoke without thinking.
Niko is going to beverycurious what Onyx member’s cock I have any involvement with.
“Oh my God, that’s Rebecca Gallin,” Ollie says, nodding across the room at a tall woman, and I’m thankful for the break in conversation. “She’s the most respected history professor at Oxford. Holy shit, people fly in here from the UK?”
Noah nods. “People come from all over for the alumni dinner. She probably was a Luros member. Want me to introduce you?”
“You know her?” Ollie says.
Noah shakes his head. “Nope. But I can talk to anyone. Come on, let’s go mingle.”
Noah takes Ollie by the arm, heading off through the crowd.
Niko is giving me averypointed glance as he walks off, and I see him slide out his phone.
A moment later my phone buzzes.
Niko: We are talking later.
It’s nothing, Niko.
You’re fucking someone in Onyx, you told Kieran before me, and you expect me *not* to grill you about it?
It’s not whatever you think it is.
Then what is it?
It was a couple of meaningless hookups with someone. That’s it.
I tap out the last text feeling like a goddamn liar.
But what am I supposed to do, tell him the truth?